Aiming for a New Normal

The election's over. It's fun for the losers to feel like rebels fighting for a just cause. This must be what my conservative parents felt eight years ago, hoarding ammo like the gov'ment was going to forcibly remove it from their home. Now we're rushing to buy IUDs. I like that the application of both results in fewer self-righteous bigots.

However, "hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people increased 147%" after the Brexit vote. Here's another source on that which includes other national consequences. I'm expecting the same thing in America. So the fact that the losers' persecution complex feels fun is a sign of the massive level of protection (aka privilege) I have as an employed, insured, white, cis, bisexual woman who was lucky enough to fall in love with a hetero partner. When I talk about my husband, not my spouse, that's the luck/privilege I'm acknowledging.

Novel writing is the slowest possible path to large-scale change, but it's what I've got. I love and try to write stories which help to normalize varieties of skin color, varieties of love, personal autonomy as a value which cannot be superseded by religious, ignorant, and/or nationalist bullshit. Normalization is part of the culture change required to make hate socially unacceptable.

And unless our neurochemistry is working against us, we're not afraid of that which is normal. These seem like logical steps to keep oneself from becoming a burden, and then make America safer for those less white/straight/male/rich/healthy:

R. E. Stearns